BASF Corp/'s Larry Tidwell. left, operational improvement coordinator — CIN, and Gabriel Young, learning and development coordinator for utilities and wastewater treatment plant areas.
One of the business groups that Larry Tidwell, operational improvement coordinator -- CIN for BASF Corp., works with directly averages about $5 million a year in losses due to human error. But, Tidwell said, those are losses that can be controlled.
"The key part of any reliability strategy is humans," he said. "We've got to figure out a way to interface more readily, especially in the 'qualification period' -- the foundation of our maintenance and our operators learning their jobs initially."
Utilizing the right tools enables field operators, distributed control system (DCS) operators and maintenance to "work hand-in-hand, and we can greatly improve our strategies to reduce downtime and maximize our profitability," Tidwell said. Enhanced reality (ER) simulation was chosen by BASF to be that training tool.
In a presentation titled "Increasing Human Reliability with Enhanced Reality Simulation" at the AFPM Reliability & Maintenance Conference and Exhibition held recently in Grapevine, Texas, Tidwell said BASF focused on "three pillars" that influenced its decision to adopt ER.
The first pillar addressed was the need to reduce the amount of time it takes to train operators to full proficiency.
"Our operating units have become more automated, which means less interaction with the process," Tidwell said. "That reduces experience for a given amount of time. That, coupled with an aging workforce, solidified our 'call to action' to improve our training approach and knowledge-capture efforts. Experience is walking out of the door ⦠It's not getting transferred to our new operators, and there are fewer opportunities."
The second pillar making ER attractive is that it trains operators to "learn by doing."
"The training simulations allow the trainee to practice the task virtually on their processes and equipment," Tidwell explained. These practice modules allow for a graduated approach to learning and have comprehensive tests.
"If you can't practice [a task] and something happens, you're going to revert right back to what you know to do," he explained. "If you can't practice, then it's nothing -- or at least it's not going to be efficient."
ER's third foundational pillar is that its procedure simulators provide immediate feedback during training and competency testing, with modules serving as virtual subject matter experts indicating the best and most efficient ways to perform operations.
"I need feedback instantly if I do something wrong, so enhanced reality is the way we've built our simulators," Tidwell said. "The feedback is instant.
"That's called the law of primacy. If you learn to tie your shoe the first time a certain way and I wait five years to come back and tell you to do it another way, you'll still do it the first way the rest of your life. It's just the way that we work. So we have to target this instant feedback early in the qualification process."
Measurable success
BASF has found that adopting ER as a training strategy has significantly reduced operator errors, with fewer unplanned events yielding potential savings ranging from $50,000 to $500,000 or more per procedure, per year.
Further, the time it takes to ensure operator proficiency is 50-percent shorter "if they see it before they go do it," Tidwell said, adding that test scores have also improved.
Finally, typical payback per project is 10 times the projected cost in the first year.
"In the end, we're just trying to reduce errors," Tidwell concluded. "People get hurt, our equipment costs us a lot of money, and I need people to be better at their jobs."
Gabriel Young, learning and development coordinator for utilities and wastewater treatment plant areas at BASF, assisted Tidwell with the presentation.
